When outside factors dictate retirement age

By Elizabeth OlsonNew York Times News Service

Published 6:32 am, Tuesday, January 20, 2015

For many, deciding to retire can be as straightforward as reaching Social Security eligibility age or amassing a solid nest egg. But for others mulling over when to stop work, there are other powerful, if less measurable, considerations like life expectancy, changing technological demands of the workplace and fear that age bias will limit continued employment.

When Mike C. Miller, a personal injury lawyer, was deliberating his retirement decision, the question of how long he might live was a recurring theme. He recently resolved to step away from his two-person practice in Marshall, Texas. At 55, he has had health problems - he’s a smoker and has had prostate cancer.

“What’s on the top of my mind,” he said, “is that my dad retired when he was 61, after 40 years as a school administrator, then he died the following May, about eight or nine months later.”

“As I get older, I see some echoes of his experience,” he said, “and that helped me make up my mind to retire.” With his two daughters nearing the end of their educations, Miller said, “I can afford it now, as long as I don’t spend whole hog.”

Miller can expect, on average, to live about 30 more years, according to government statistics. Estimates differ, but for individual calculations, the Social Security Administration has an online life expectancy calculator to help people figure out their longevity. A 65-year-old man, for example, can expect to live, on average, until 84.5 years old, and a woman of the same age until 86.8 years old, according to Social Security. (The calculator does not factor in a person’s current health, family history and other matters.)

Merely because people can continue to work into their 70s and beyond, though, “does not mean that longer work lives are a reasonable option for all,” said Sara E. Rix, who analyzes retirement issues for the AARP Public Policy Institute.

“We may think we have a pretty good idea of how long we will live judging from the age of death of a parent or grandparent of the same sex,” she said, “but we can’t rule out dying well before then and before we eventually retire.”

Individuals who expect to live until they are 75 or older often delay their retirement target date, according to a 2014 study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, typically to add to their retirement savings.

“There is so much push to work longer - it’s practically a mantra - but sometimes if you have a health history or a family health history, you need to take that into account in making the decision to retire,” said Alicia H. Munnell, the center’s director.

Seeing friends die early helped prompt Patrick Hale and his wife, Gina, both 58, of Jacksonville, Florida, to come up with a plan to retire at 62, despite having fine health, “good genes,” plenty of stamina and solid jobs as public schoolteachers.

“It’s an eye-opener when you see someone pass away from a brain aneurysm,” said Hale, a science teacher and avid bicyclist.

Like his wife, who teaches music appreciation and music history - and who plays tennis regularly - he comes from a long-lived family.

“Sure, there are challenges in the workplace,” he said, “but we have a plan to work another three years, until mid-2018, and then start the next chapter of our lives.”

While optimism or pessimism about their expected longevity can influence the timing of retirement, other challenges like technology can precipitate a permanent departure from working. Many reaching retirement age today have not had routine exposure to the media tools that are becoming regular features of current offices.

Sally Shelburne, 73, of Washington, said technology changes hastened her retirement two years ago from the National Gallery of Art, where she was a staff lecturer.

“There was no mandatory age requirement for retiring,” said Shelburne, who raised four children, then returned to college to earn two advanced degrees, including a doctorate in modern and contemporary art.

She later joined the National Gallery’s education division and gave lectures on Picasso and other major artists.

But technology began to upend how art and other museums were providing information to visitors, and the scheduled gallery talk began to seem more old-fashioned. Multimedia devices opened up ways to package visual, audio and video information for museum-goers to use on their own timetable.

“As audio guides and smartphones became more prevalent,” Shelburne said, “I began to feel we were a bit of a declining breed. You could see the handwriting on the wall.”

Like Shelburne, Leslye Evans-Lane, 60, a board-certified academic coach in Portland, Oregon, was in a situation where retirement might be the graceful choice.

She worked in higher education for years, including four years as an academic adviser at a community college in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She moved with her husband to Portland two years ago so he could pursue his career in the utilities industry.

Then she started looking for a new job, but, after repeated efforts, she could not find an opening that made use of her experience and credentials.

“In one job I applied for, they told me they didn’t think I could register students in the computer system,” she said. “Of course, I had done that before.”

Another potential employer told her that she “couldn’t relate to 18-year-olds,” she recalled.

That, too, she rejects as a reason not to hire her and says, “It’s been shock, denial and depression. I never dreamed that higher education here would be this way.”

Evans-Lane is one of many older workers who face impediments to finding a job, said Michael D. Hurd, director of the Rand Center for the Study of Aging, who has examined how the labor market treats aging workers.

“A better-educated, higher-skilled, older worker competes for a new job with a young, less educated, lower-skilled worker,” he said. Not only is it harder to find a job, he said, but “it’s highly likely that a new job will be low-paying.”

That is what Evans-Lane experienced. She finally took a part-time, on-call job at an animal shelter, where she cleans kennels and helps out. And she has shifted her retirement age downward, to 62.

“I want to work, but I’m going to be involuntarily retired,” she said. “That means I will get fewer benefits than if I had worked until 65.”

For those who can do it, having a fallback plan for unforeseen difficulties is ideal. For example, Miller in Texas has given himself some leeway to make sure he is making the right decision to leave his job. He is taking a three- to six-month sabbatical from his law firm, leaving himself the option of returning to work part time if money is tight or if he is bored as a retiree.

Of course, “I own the practice,” he said with a chuckle. Even so, he’s not eager to return, noting “there’s nothing healthy about my job. It’s a lot of stress.”